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I recently wrote about how I believe there will definitely be confusion between Stanley Black & Decker’s new Craftsman cordless power tools, which will be available at Lowes, and the new Craftsman power tools that Sears is coming out with.

The new Stanley Black & Decker (SBD) Craftsman power tool lineup, as far as I consider them, are the new Craftsman tools, while Sears’ are licensed products, seeing as how SBD now owns the brand.

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The average consumer probably won’t realize this.

In addition to the potential confusion just by the fact that there are now V20 and 20V tools with red and black color schemes and Craftsman branding, a reader reported about Sears associates and customer service agents being ill-informed, leading to inaccurate advice that the tools were compatible with Craftsman V20 and Dewalt product platforms.

Although I was nearly certain that the two new lines of Craftsman-branded 20V Max cordless power tools were not at all compatible, I reached out to Craftsman – on the SBD side of things – for confirmation.

Following is what I heard back from Jeff Doehne, General Manager for the Craftsman brand:

Stanley Black & Decker is not supplying Sears with their CRAFTSMAN 20V tools and 20V Diehard batteries. The 20V CRAFTSMAN products that have been released by Sears is not compatible with the new CRAFTSMAN V20 tool lineup that debuted at the brand’s launch event in mid-August.

The V20 lineup can be viewed on CRAFTSMAN.com, and will be available at Lowe’s Home Improvement, Ace Hardware, and on Amazon.com. Furthermore, the new V20 batteries produced by the CRAFTSMAN brand will not be compatible with the 20V products released by Sears.

We would also like to note that the CRAFTSMAN SKUs for our new products begin with “CMT” for easy identification. Additionally, the new products released by CRAFTSMAN are titled, “V20”, whereas the products released by Sears are “20V”. NEW CRAFTSMAN products can be viewed on CRAFTSMAN.com, and will be available at Lowe’s Home Improvement, Ace Hardware, and on Amazon.com later this year.

A big question for me is: are the SBD V20 batteries plug compatible with the Sears 20V batteries? I.E. Can I buy a SBC V20 and use it on a Sears Craftsman 20V tool and vice versa???? Nobody seems to be asking this….

This is the type of question I have been anticipating, and others like it will only increase in frequency as both Craftsman and Sears promote and advertise their power tools throughout the end of the year.

Craftsman’s response pushed my 99.9% certainty to 100%, and so I can now say with absolute confidence that the two cordless power tool platforms are not at all compatible.

NO, Craftsman V20 and 20V Max cordless power tools, batteries, and chargers, are not cross-platform compatible. To ensure compatibility, stick with the V20 lineup and look for a CMT model number prefix on everything.

77 Comments

I am really not sure what either company was thinking at this point. This will only serve to hurt them both. Similar colors, similar series name (v20 vs. 20v.) This is a recipe for failure all around and a bunch of unhappy consumers. I will be sticking with Milwaukee and DeWalt.

There’s no way in hell the similarities were “strategically” designed by Sears. Sears’ 20v max line hit stores less than a month after SBD debuted V20 at their pep rally. It takes many, many months, if not a year to get a whole new product like that designed, manufactured, and distributed. And Sears’ 20v hit actual stores before SBD’s V20, so they very well could have put in the order with their supplier before SBD did with theirs.

And really, when both Sears and SBD made the head-scratching decision to alienate the millions of C3 owners and debut a new bottom-rung tool line, how could these two products NOT have come out resembling each other? The tools were obviously going to be Craftsman branded, they were obviously going to be red and black, they were going to be 18v lithium side packs labeled as 20v max because basically everything is today. The similarities were inevitable with two completely separate companies owning and marketing the same brand.

It takes fewer months than you might imagine if these are just existing TTI designs wearing a different plastic shell, but yes it is fair to assume Sears had been planning the release for quite a while, would be unusual for them NOT to release new tools except for that bankruptcy thing.

If you’re opening the wallet for Milwaukee and DeWalt, you’re really not the consumer SBD is aiming for with Craftsman anyway. Among the average consumer, Craftsman is still a well regarded name despite Sears’ mishandling of some of its products.

If you are patient and buy things on sale, Amazon Deal of the Day, HD Special Buy of the Day, the difference isn’t much. I don’t know much of anyone who still considers Craftsman well regarded. My dad is in his 70’s and now considers them ‘junk.’ I hope that they can rebuild it but I think that ship has sailed.

Not true Travis, the fair comparison would be the Craftsman tools also on sale and the fact is you can usually get them for little over 60% of the cost of Milwaukee and DeWalt, especially once you consider replacement batteries and this is the biggest issue on my mind.

I could make due with a Craftsman cordless drive as a compliment to those I already have, but i don’t want to find years from now that (whichever) battery it takes is no longer available except as 3rd party generic junk.

The key thing about Craftsman product placement is if it isn’t in their Pro line, should be considered homeowner grade tools. Truth is, you don’t need the biggest baddest tool for 80%+ of what the average person buying them, uses them for.

I, regretfully, have to give Craftsman drills and drivers a “DO NOT BUY” recommendation until Sears goes under and this sorts itself out.

I love the older Craftsman hand tools and I have a tool box full of the USA-made sockets and wrenches. I am already invested in another battery platform so the V20/20V is not something I would invest in personally. I do have relatives that is a first time home owner and I am the tool “expert” of the family. If I say to buy the Craftsman V20 drill, that is not what will be heard. All that is heard is “Craftsman”. This is not a Thanksgiving day conversation I want to have a year from now if they bought into the wrong platform.

Can’t say I disagree. A savvy consumer can navigate it, sure, but this is a huge headache that the casual shopper does not need. I would not steer anyone towards it, particularly since someone who needs to be steered is probably the exact kind of person who would get lost in making sense of this kind of asinine compatibility nonsense.

For some unknown reason, my family (who I am making recommendations to) actually have a sears down the street from them. I am sure that they are “team amazon” anyway but if sears sells theirs online too, we’ll let’s just say I am not recommending them for my own sanity and civility at the Thanksgiving table. My mother in law on the other hand only knows Sears Craftsman. That is all her husband used for 30+ years leaving behind a large number of quality tools and that is also what I put on my Christmas wish lists for years so it is in her brain that that is what you buy.

Craftsman tools have always been crap. Look a the centering of there sockets. Good enough for the average idiot who thinks they can fix something but in a day to day setting ….you will get hurt by them. Spend the money and buy from a real tool company.

Oi. We simply need to remind loved ones to only buy Craftsman tools at Lowe’s, Ace or Amazon with the proviso the part/sku/whatever number has CMT in the prefix somewhere. And to avoid ANYTHING with Diehard printed on it.

Sears, I never thought I would say this but please, PLEASE, just go to the big retailer graveyard in the sky. The faster you lot are no longer associated with any of the old marquee the better.

In the last two consecutive months, the two Sears stores in the area announced that they are closing within the next three months (one of them before the Christmas shopping season). I went in one the other day just to browse / kill some time and noticed that there was one person manning the register apparently covering all of lawn / garden and tools departments. 45 minutes later, this was still the case, and one of the men in line earlier was just then checking out.

I realize that the two Craftsmans might be confusing, but after seeing that (and the fact that the Sears website is nearly impossible to buy anything on), how many of the licensed Craftsman power tools are likely to actually make it out into the wild?

They’re also selling the Sears/Kmart ones online, plus the SBD versions will be available at in-store and online at Lowe’s and Amazon. so there’s a REALLY good chance tons of these will be bought in the months ahead.

Too bad SBD has chosen to lighten the Craftsman red color. Putting them next to one another, it really highlights how cheap that bright red looks on the SBD version (which I’m sure is actually much better built).

Hometown & outlet inc (shos) is not a division, it was spun off from Shld back in 2012 along with lands end. SHOS is an independent company not under shld. Example shos still has the over 100year partnership with whirlpool while shld(kmart) doesn’t.

Disappointed all around. Sears for the POS company they’ve been for some time now, and SBD for this bullshit deal which I feel diminishes their claim of really caring about the Craftsman brand. If you really cared about the brand, you wouldn’t have cut a deal to purchase it, that allowed a garbage company that ruined it to continue crapping out garbage under the same name. I will not be having jack to do with Craftsman for much longer now, despite my initial hopefulness.

I’d say we’re in a transition period where SBD has to let Sears keep up appearances in terms of propping up the name and still not making it too obvious their CEO just wants to liquidate the company for personal profit, and also wants to monetize their investment in time for the holiday 2018 season to get some cash rolling in.

I’m somewhat hopeful that SBD will do at least a decent job with the Craftsman hand tools once they get USA production going, but am also wary they will hobble it to keep it below many of their other brands.

Thats easy to say when you’re not the one at the negotiating table. If that’s the only offer Sears was willing to take, SBD really didn’t have the choice to dictate the terms of the licensing agreement. SBD probably and rightly decided the brand was strong enough to withstand anything Sears pulled before they close all their stores.

Sears had several offers for the Craftsman brand, and went with SBD likely because their offer was quite a bit higher and they were able to handle letting Sears keep using the name and getting tools from existing suppliers. I’m pretty sure SBD dictated lots of the terms rather than Sears, since it was Sears that really needed the money.

Regardless of the current Craftsman != Craftsman clusterf***, I couldn’t recommend that anyone buy anything from Sears where Sears would be the sole provider of the warranty, be it Craftsman, Kenmore, or anything else.

I’m pretty impressed at the legal wrangling Sears was apparently able to do in getting SBD to agree to be the party that had to brand their tools as V20″ instead of the pretty-much-industry-standard “20V” in order to somehow differentiate them.

I’d say the appearance of the batteries alone is enough to know they aren’t the same or compatible, but going that extra length to put the “V” for volts in FRONT of the number is just – jaw-droppingly dumb and yet amazing at the same time.

Also, the ads/promos for the “new” Sears/Craftsman 20V set makes it look like Sears really is only going have these as their sole power tools once existing inventory of the C3/19.2V is gone. Maybe they’ll keep the Nextec 12V too, but I’d guess that’s going away if there’s no new production either.

My guess is they just have the drill/driver set to keep SOMEthing around in terms of cordless power tools – it’d be a little too obvious they were going away if they didn’t.

They still seem to be selling them online and in stores, at least the last of the drills/drivers and a few other tools, plus the chargers and batteries.

I don’t expect they will come out with any new Nextec tools since they discontinued most of the stuff, but they must either have a ton of existing stock they are still getting rid of, or their supplier (Chervon) is still producing or sending existing orders.

Under the Craftsman purchase deal Sears is free to buy their Craftsman stuff any place they choose. It is hardly in SB&D’s interest to supply them and will be happy to see them gone. SB&D has to pay a commission on every piece of Cman labeled stuff they sell, to Sears. Today in my news feed there were several stories about Sears inminent demise. They will not see the end of the year so constant stories about their effect on the market are moot. I cannot see how anybody would invest a penny in a brand that will be gone any day, for products that might require batteries or spare parts. A cheap wrench or the garden hose I got for peanuts, fine. A drill, no way. The support is no better or worse than HF.

Jeff, exactly. By the time this stuff breaks or the batteries go bad there will be nowhere left to return or warrant it anyway. Even if there is, I suspect these have next to nothing in terms of warranty length anyway.

Maybe, and it is a big maybe, SBD will eat some losses and offer some form of warranty for those who still have some length left on their Sears junk. Maybe a rebate or coupon instead as long as they trade in these pretenders. That way they are leaving the ecosystem altogether and SBD won’t have to answer questions about them forever. Who knows? I think you are dead on in your assessment of Sears.

I visited Sears website when Stuart posted the first article with the new Sears Craftsman drill. I have been bombarded with emails ever since telling me I forgot to buy the drill and there is a new lower price. Sears is pathetic and downright p****ng me off now.

Sears Canada is already gone completely. So, honestly, I think it’s time to let the Craftsman brand die, and stop with these topics.

No doubt, Pre-1990 Craftsman Wrenches and Cabinets, you know, the ones promoted by Bob Villa? Yeah, that’s about where the Craftsman brand died. By 1990 the brand began to die, and was thoroughly abused by Sears right up until this moment. If you’ve still got pristine Pre-1990 Craftsman HAND Tools, then you’re set for life, and could even inherit them down to Children or Grandchildren if you chose to.

After 1990… I’m sorry, but the more we bring up Craftsman, the more we’re getting into a soap opera, not tool news. I know I don’t dictate what gets considered for this site, but for all intents and purposes, Craftsman IS Dead. The name may have been bought by SBD, but really the brand is Dead. In the Grave. Burned Out. Terminal. End of Line. The absolute BEST they could do, SBD that is, is to double-brand the Craftsman line. Everything else will hurt them.

And, even reading the comments here… This topic is really painful for a lot of people. The more we talk about it, or update the situation, the more we’re hurting ourselves, and justifying the Sears CEO who is the cause of this giant mistake. So, really, we should let it die, like it deserved to die. With some dignity still intact. The way we’re dragging it out now is just… painful, bordering on disgusting.

The day we see Sears gone from the planet is the day SBD should release Craftsman into the world again, NOT before. But, really, it needs a Double-Branded release. Stanley-Craftsman Socket/Wrench sets like the OLD Craftsman cabinets, sold in installments, complete runs of sizes, etc. Craftsman-Porter Cable Air Compressor tools and supplies. Craftsman-DeWALT Corded and Cordless Tools. Craftsman-MAC Automotive Grade Tools. And for those Gadgety tools from Black and Decker, I think SBD-Craftsman Home would make a good launchpad for those. The key to their success would be the battery for the Craftsman tool, and its Co-Branded PURE Model, would be the same, where applicable.

Talk beyond this as a resurrection WITHOUT Sears involvement is just going to hurt us all. Let the Sears years die with some level of dignity for when they WERE good tools. SBD can do them justice, but not with Sears still in existence. And at least with the double-branding I suggest, it would be obvious who to call when something is wrong. The same people it’s co-branded with. SBD and the stores you bought it from.

And, yes, I am aware of Bostitch having a stake in this as well. I think Craftsman-Porter Cable AND Bostitch-Craftsman air tools could work side-by-side. There have always been models in both these companies that were exclusive to them, and yet the other had the same niche audience. Adding a Craftsman secondary brand to either one would only make the original more attractive. Buy a Craftsman-Porter Cable, or Bostitch-Craftsman tool, figure out that you REALLY love it… suddenly you’re buying another as a backup, but it’s Porter Cable or Bostitch original instead, regretting NOTHING about trying the Craftsman first.

In my own defense, there are so many brands under SBD that could be covered by, or partnered with, Craftsman as a Resurrection, that I personally couldn’t keep track of them all.

This is the stupidest thing ever. Maybe TTI and Chervon refused to make anything new for Sears, but alienating your C3 base probably sealed the deal for all of us not to buy another thing from Sears.

I have 90% of the C3 tools. I do my own work on my house and despite everyone always saying the C3 line isn’t good enough for anything but light homeowner use that’s false. I’ve demod a basement, gutted and remodeled a bathroom, cut countless trim pieces, modified cabinets etc. All with the C3 tools: 1/2” brushless drill, 1/4 impact driver, recip saw, 6.5” miter saw, cordless jigsaw.

All still holding up and all XCP batteries still kicking. Sears could have probably made a lot of sales off us relessing new C3 offerings. Instead they gave us the middle finger.

I have no plans to ever buy Craftsman cordless tools again. I have been bitten by them before Sears began falling apart. I bought a 20V cordless set in 2008 and by 2014 they had changed the batteries and they wound not stock replacement batteries for the older styles. Within 6 yrs. my tools became obsolete.

In Deal making, they often forget things that are applicable in years to come. For example, not building into a deal to have SBD supply the tools, odd. Sears not asking for SBD to make their new mold fit the 19.2 platform, odd, but easily overlooked.

Tactical move by SBD to make Sears or Sears Craftsman get out of supplying tools all together was probably their motive. It’s self destructive to the brand to do this, and yet SBD must think there is still enough residual value in it.

DeWalt is available at both home Depot and Lowe’s. Porter Cable, I think more in Lowe’s. House brand wise, you have Ryobi and rigid , vs kobalt. Milwaukee is non existent at most Lowe’s, but Bosch has a higher presence at Lowe’s. There’s a shelf space and low to mid tier problem. There’s nothing wrong with the kobalt brand, other than low market penetration. The Craftsmen brand took a big blow when they started selling it at Kmart..

If SBD wants to stay in consumer’s good graces, they should design and manufacture C3 and Nextec-compatible replacement batteries to support the millions of tools that Sears sold over the years.

I’m fully invested in C3 and have several newer batteries. I’m in good shape for now, but cringe when I think about the future cost buying into a new brand platform. I suspect C3 and Nextec-compatible batteries could bring in a good bit of revenue for SBD and keep consumers happy with the brand until the old legacy tools wear out. This would eliminate confusion, allow Lowes and other retailers to support C-Man customers and reduces PR headaches down the road.

Conversely, I wouldn’t bother designing a compatible replacement for the new Sears V20 tools. They will likely only be a flash-in-the-pan with Sears quickly heading for the retail graveyard.

I wonder how many consumers will walk away from the brand entirely when they goes to Lowes in a couple years to replace their old batteries and find nothing compatible on the shelves? It would be in SBD’s best interest to be prepared for this inevitability.

John, I get your point but SBDC has little incentive to design and build a battery platform for another company’s product line that is essentially defunct.

What is C3 now, 15 years old or better? I am not sure since I never bought into it. I wouldn’t touch the platform if I was SBDC for all the whiskey in Ireland. And wouldn’t there be some patent issues with TTI? Again, I am not sure and Sears may be the owner of the rights to the platform. In any case I suspect C3 is headed for the tool boneyard. A real pain for owners.

I am excited for the resurrection of Craftsman Cordless. It’s beyond “about time.” This is the world we live in ie constant change and I am grateful that SBC has taken on the task of bringing back the dead. As another commenter stated, it seems all the Craftsman Cordless sold through Sears will have the “Diehard” trademark on them. Consumers are smart enough with researching tools beforehand nowadays. If SBC follows through with its promises of USA made hand tools, I will definitely be shopping for them before Husky or other Chinese Made tools. The ball is in SBC’s court and the game’s winner is up to their efforts to deliver!

Nice move Craftsmen. Stanley B&D needs to seriously get their act together. Less is more is a great term honestly and I get that Sears is just treading water at this point as the Jaws theme of Chapter 11 looms in the distance but come on man. Maybe think about trying to somewhat salvage a rep of a company that might be around post Sears.

This entire Craftsman cordless situation is just a mess all-around. Right now Lowe’s has the brushless impact/drill combo kit for $249. Why would anyone get it for that price when the DeWalt is often $10 more? For that matter, why buy into any new Craftsman line over Bosch/Makita/Milwaukee?

I’ll be designing a C3 adapter to use the 20V SBD batteries and just slowly transition over. Problem solved for the most part.
Now to just wait for the batteries to come out so I can figure out the pinouts…

Because I bought the Sears brand on line and the Craftsman at Lowe’s I was very disappointed
I have been using Craftsman brand for decades
As a commercial carpenter/woodworker I have had the high priced brands in the past and they have failed me. I stayed with the C3 line and have been completely satisfied I install door frames and hardware and the other guys are amazed st the performance per dollar value.
I was really aggravated to find out the interchange between my drill/impact and my cordless oscillating tool are not compatible. I am faced with finding out which is the higher quality tool. I know over the years the C3 will be phased out so I want the best tool that is in the Craftsman/Sears line I’m never going to waste my money when the results I get suit my needs.

I would avoid the “Sears Craftsman” products entirely. It’s only a matter of time before Sears goes from the Chapter 11 Reorganization to Chapter 7 Liquidation. In my mind, the new Sears Craftsman 20V line was DOA.

The SBD Craftsman products will likely have a better prospect in the long run, but I’m not at all happy with how they handled the 20V cordless tools. They could have kept the new Craftsman 20V tools compatible with the old, but they choose not to.

If you have a bunch of working C3 tools you might want to look at who has battery adapters to allow those tools to work with some newer 20V tool line batteries. I was in that situation with my Dewalt 18V tools, and chose the shared B&D / Craftsman 20V Max line as my go-forward cordless tools. As such, I got a battery adapter to run my Dewalt tools off the 20V Max batteries. That’s why I’m peeved about the current mess of new, incompatible 20V tool lines.

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